SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 197 



his boy in about ten dayes time, in a ground of 90 acres, took 

 3 bus[hels] old and young. Among Mr. Speed's notes there are 

 these receipts : Take red herrings and cutting them in pieces 

 burn the pieces on the molehills, or you may put garlicke or 

 leeks in the mouths of their Hill, and the moles will leave the 

 ground. I have not tryed these ways, and therefore refer the 

 reader to his own tryal, belief or doubt." 



For the destruction of other garden pests many equally 

 fanciful remedies were in vogue. Lawson recommends to pick 

 off all caterpillars with the hand, " and tread them under foot." 

 " I like nothing of smoake among my trees," he says ; " un- 

 naturall heates are nothing good for naturall trees." He 

 enumerates the things necessary for keeping the garden free 

 from " beasts " — " besides your out strong fence, you must have 

 a fayre and swift greyhound, a stone-bowe, gunne, and if neede 

 require, an apple with an hooke for a Deere, and a Hare-pipe 

 for a hare " ; and against blackbirds, bullfinches, and other small 

 birds, " the best remedy here is a stone-bow, a peece." No 

 survey of the garden would be complete without mention of 

 the bees, whose hives were to be found in them all, and the 

 management of which was considered a necessary part of a 

 gardener's duties, and writers on gardening subjects generally 

 devoted a chapter to bees. 1 



One memorable event in the time of Charles I. was the for- 

 mation of the first Botanical Garden in England, at Oxford, 

 in 1632. This was just a hundred years after the establishment 

 of the earliest in Europe, that at Padua. Henry, Earl of 

 Danby, founded and endowed it ;. he gave five acres of land, 

 also built greenhouses, and a house for the gardener. The fine 

 gateways, bearing a date and inscription in praise of the 

 founder, were designed by Inigo Jones. Jacob Bobart, a 

 German, from Brunswick, first had charge of it, and he was 

 succeeded by his son, also Jacob. The entrance to the garden 

 from the meadow was guarded by two large yew-trees, clipped 

 into the form of giants, which have been the subject of much 

 rival wit, and no less than three ballads on them have been 

 preserved. 2 



1 Thomas Hill, The Right Ordering of Bees, 1593 and 1608. 



2 Memorials of Oxford, by James Ingram ; Oxford, J. H. Parker, 1837. 



